1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to inhalators to be applied to aerosol containers containing medicaments or the like and, more particularly, to inhalators which are extremely simple and functional types both in their construction and from a hygienic standpoint.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is known, aerosol containers for spraying medicaments or the like through an inhalator, the purpose of which is to convey the medicament in the form of spray directly into the mouth, the nose or the ear of a patient, have long been on the market.
Such known inhalators are usually of two types.
The first type consists of a cap with a fixed mouthpiece to be applied to an aerosol container in order that the spray from the valve of such aerosol container will flow through the mouthpiece directly into the oral, nasal or auricular cavity. Therefore, the purpose of such mouthpiece is to convey the spray of medicament directly into the area to be treated, thereby avoiding dispersion of sprayed medicament and contamination from the outside environment.
The second type consists of a cap with a mouthpiece which can be retracted into an inhalator body when the inhalator is not being operated and extracted therefrom whenever it is desired to spray the medicament. This type of inhalator was designed to protect the delivery orifice of an aerosol container valve against penetration of foreign matter into the mouthpiece and the inhalator itself, mainly for hygienic reasons.
In fact, the cleaning of the inhalator must be carried out according to stringent hygienic standards, which must be strictly followed. In the case of medicaments, the presence of any foreign matter has a deleterious effect on efficiency of the curative treatment.
The known inhalators of the second type, although on one hand offering several advantages over those of the first type, i.e. those having fixed mouthpieces on the other hand, suffer from several drawbacks. These drawbacks are mainly due to the rather complicated design which is required for the mouthpiece to accomplish its extraction and retraction movements. In addition, such inhalators have large openings to allow the mouthpiece to be extracted and retracted. Therefore, such inhalators fail in hygienically safeguarding the spraying mouthpiece and the sprayed medicament.